Exclusive interview with the Sicilian chef who has been bringing authentic Italian cuisine to England for 25 years.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Beginning: A Passion Born at Nine Years Old
- The Journey in Sicily: From Working Up Through Ownership
- The Big Leap: England and New Challenges
- Eight Years of Success: The Restaurant That Felt Like Home
- Italian Cuisine Abroad: Between Authenticity and Show
- The Pillars of Success: Respect and Teamwork
- True Made in Italy: Not Just a Label
- Advice for Aspiring Restaurateurs
- Conclusions
In the landscape of Italian hospitality abroad, there are stories that deserve to be told.
That of Angelo Megna, a Sicilian chef from Palermo with 25 years of experience in England, is one of them.
In an exclusive interview for Reality in the Restaurant, Angelo opened the doors to his world, sharing a journey made of sacrifices, passion, and unconditional love for authentic Italian cuisine.
The Beginning: A Passion Born at Nine Years Old
Angelo's story begins almost like a fairy tale, as often happens for those born with passion in their blood.
At just nine and a half years old, young Angelo was already immersed in the world of hospitality.
"I started my career as a game," Angelo recalls, "because my brothers were already in the restaurant business and I would go visit them."
But what begins as a simple pastime for a child waiting for his brothers quickly transforms into a vocation.
"I would go into the kitchen to peel garlic, clean mussels. And from there, everything started."
This early experience in the family restaurant in Palermo laid the foundation for what would become an extraordinary professional journey, teaching Angelo from the very beginning the importance of every single role in the kitchen.
The Journey in Sicily: From Working Up Through Ownership
Young Angelo doesn't stop at the kitchen.
For ten years, he pursues a career as a waiter, working in restaurants, pizzerias, and prestigious establishments like Charleston in Palermo, which at the time boasted two Michelin stars.
A formative experience that allows him to understand hospitality from every angle.
The turning point comes when, while working in a pizzeria-restaurant, he gets the opportunity to open his own place.
"From there I moved to being inside the restaurant twenty-four hours a day," Angelo remembers.
His establishment offered everything: kitchen, pizzeria, rotisserie, gelato shop, pastry shop.
An all-consuming experience that lasted four years and shaped his character and skills.
The Big Leap: England and New Challenges
In 2001, Angelo makes a decision that will forever change his life: leaving Sicily for England.
"I decided to change scenery," he explains simply, but behind this choice lies the desire to grow, to confront different culinary cultures.
In England, Angelo continues working as a chef in numerous restaurants, discovering a new world.
"I felt great. I learned so much from the cuisine of English gastro pubs, because every nation has its merits, its cuisines, their way of working."
This open-mindedness, this ability to learn without prejudice, is one of the secrets of his success.
Angelo is not one of those chefs who considers only their own tradition as valid, but knows how to recognize value in every culinary culture.
Eight Years of Success: The Restaurant That Felt Like Home
After his experiences in English restaurants, Angelo joins an Italian restaurant where, from 2007 to 2014, he serves as head chef.
This experience represents perhaps the most significant chapter of his career.
"It was a very simple restaurant, where people arrived and customers felt at home, they felt welcomed," he recalls with pride.
But what makes this experience truly special is the team's stability: eight people in the kitchen who worked with him for eight full years, from apprentice to dishwasher.
Angelo's dedication was total: "I was in there twenty hours a day, I never missed a day."
Even on vacation, his thoughts were always on the restaurant.
But he had an extraordinary sous chef, Anna, whom he describes as "Angelo in the form of a woman."
A collaborator so reliable that when he would call her on vacation, she would tell him: "Angelo, please don't call, you don't need to call because I know what I'm doing."
Italian Cuisine Abroad: Between Authenticity and Show
When we ask him how he sees Italian cuisine represented in England, Angelo doesn't mince words.
"It's not what it used to be," he states with a hint of nostalgia.
"Now it's just about putting on a show."
His regret is evident: "It's a lot of show where they display everything, but they don't convey the love, the actual love that must be put into Italian cooking."
For Angelo, the proliferation of programs like MasterChef has created a generation of people who "come out of MasterChef and all feel like chefs," but without the real substance that comes from field experience.
Another problem he identifies is product quality: "It used to be much easier to enhance a dish because the products themselves already had a superior taste compared to now."
The Pillars of Success: Respect and Teamwork
In Angelo's vision, there are two fundamental elements for success in hospitality: respect and teamwork.
Respect for Every Role
"For me, a chef must know how to do everything in a kitchen, not just cook," Angelo emphasizes.
A phrase that encapsulates his philosophy: understanding and respecting every role, from dishwasher to chef.
"For me, the value of a dishwasher is very important, because if the dishwasher doesn't work, nothing works in the kitchen, there's bad service."
It's a lesson he learned from the great chefs he worked with, people who are now eighty, eighty-five years old and with whom he still speaks weekly.
The Importance of Harmony
Angelo remembers precious advice received from a master: "You must always enter through the main door. Why? Because at the main door there's a mat where you wipe your feet before entering. This gesture means: you leave your problems outside, once you're in here there's only one problem, the kitchen."
"Within a reality like that of a restaurant, you need a certain harmony where everyone collaborates together," he explains.
Respect must be mutual between owner and employee: "The owner needs the employee, just as the employee needs the owner who gives them work."
True Made in Italy: Not Just a Label
Angelo has very clear ideas about what "Made in Italy" truly means in hospitality abroad.
"You can't say Made in Italy and then have nothing Italian except the name," he states decisively.
"For me, Made in Italy is a serious thing, the products themselves must be Italian, it must be one hundred percent Made in Italy."
But it's not just about products.
According to Angelo, key people must also be Italian: "The key figures must be Italian, starting with the owner or if the owner isn't Italian, the person in charge of the kitchen and the person in the dining room should be Italian."
The reason?
"We Italians have that sense of welcoming. The hospitality we Italians have is hard to find anywhere in the world."
It's this authenticity, this innate ability to make guests feel at home, that according to Angelo makes the difference.
The Complete Experience
For Angelo, the experience in an Italian restaurant must be three-hundred-sixty degrees: "From when you enter to what you eat, how you're welcomed."
He recognizes that a non-Italian collaborator can learn and become excellent after years of working together, but emphasizes the importance of always having Italian guidance: "The inventiveness we Italians have, we're very creative.
We don't panic, we find a solution in any situation."
Advice for Aspiring Restaurateurs
When we ask him what advice he would give to those who want to work in the world of hospitality, Angelo is clear and direct.
"Respect everything you do, with respect, with love for what you're doing," he states.
But he adds an important warning: "I'll say it clearly and naturally: if there's no respect in doing things, it's better to throw in the towel immediately and change profession."
It's not cynicism, it's realism.
Angelo knows that hospitality is a tough profession that requires enormous sacrifices.
"Running Italian restaurants abroad is very difficult because finding staff, personnel" is a constant challenge.
But when you manage to create "a circle of people who work with you for four, six, eight years, it becomes beautiful."
The Challenges of Working Abroad
With 25 years of experience in England, Angelo has worked with people of every nationality: Polish, Romanian, English, Turkish.
His observation? "They get lost immediately in a glass of water. Italians try not to get lost."
It's not a question of superiority, but of cultural approach to problems, of that very Italian ability to improvise and find creative solutions even in the most difficult situations.
Reality in the Restaurant: Promoting Authenticity
Angelo deeply appreciates the Reality in the Restaurant project.
"What you're doing is beautiful because it selects Made in Italy," he comments.
For him, it's fundamental that projects exist to help customers distinguish authentic Italian cuisine from imitations.
"What you're doing is beautiful because you're promoting Made in Italy," he adds.
"We're happy to bring our traditions around the world."
It's this sense of community, of belonging to a culinary tradition that must be preserved and valued, that still motivates him today.
Conclusions
Angelo Megna's story is much more than a simple tale of professional success.
It's testimony to how passion, respect, and authenticity can make the difference in the world of hospitality.
From the kitchens of the family restaurant in Palermo, where a nine-year-old boy began peeling garlic, to the English restaurants where he brought the excellence of Italian cuisine, Angelo has always maintained his principles: respect for every role, love for his work, and an unwavering commitment to authenticity.
In an era when Italian cuisine is often reduced to stereotype or spectacle, chefs like Angelo Megna remind us what it truly means to cook Italian style: not just preparing good dishes, but creating a complete experience of welcome, warmth, and genuineness.
His philosophy is simple but profound: if there's no respect and love for what you do, it's better to change profession.
And when these elements are present, when you manage to build a united team that shares the same values, then magic happens: customers feel at home, the team works with joy, and true Italian cuisine shines in all its authenticity.
To discover other stories of Italian excellence around the world and find authentic Italian restaurants abroad, follow Reality in the Restaurant.
source https://www.realitalianrestaurants.com/blog/angelo-megna-from-the-heart-of-sicily-to-english-restaurants-a-story-of-passion-and-authenticity
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